A random collection of recipes that I have found, were given to me, or are happy kitchen accidents. You will find weekly menu plans here as well as random posts about housekeeping. Mostly, it's about the food. Enjoy!

Saturday, July 06, 2013

Well, after the great birdseed debacle I regrouped and went with what I know: You don't make friends with birdseed. These recipes are at the opposite end of the nutrition spectrum as the recipe in my previous post--they even go so far as to call for processed fake ingredients like cake mix and cool-whip. Of course, that stuff makes my kids make faces like this:

The cinnamon roll square keeps really well in the pan so it makes a nice snack to tuck into a bag for day camp or to go to the beach or on a picnic. I usually avoid buying mixes in boxes, but I really couldn't come up with a substitute in that recipe.

I made the Eclair Cake for dessert after a barbecue. Due to the delicate nature of the cream-puff crust and the creamy filling, the cake does not keep as well, but that really isn't a problem as we didn't have any left at all after our dinner! I did not use instant pudding and Cool-Whip as the recipe calls for. I made vanilla pudding from scratch and cooled it all the way down in the fridge before mixing in the whipped cream cheese. I also used real whipped cream for the topping and home made chocolate sauce. I don't think my filling came out as thick as the filling in the picture due to the fact the custard was only thickened with cornstarch instead of tetrasodium pyrophosphate, but no one seemed to mind.

If you click through to the blog post, you will find out this blogger thinks this is the best loaf of bread ever. It takes any spread. It makes the best toast ever. You will feel so healthy and full of life if you eat this bread.

I am always trying to find new and healthy and fibre-rich foods to feed my kids and I just happened to have all of the ingredients on hand, so I braced myself for a life-changing food experience.

The instructions are pretty straight-forward. Blend a mixture of nuts, seeds, oats, honey and coconut oil with some psyllium and water. Let it sit until the moisture is absorbed. Bake in the oven, tipping the loaf out onto the oven rack halfway through the cooking time (yeah, right--not in my brand new oven!) and finish baking.

My first problem came when it was time to tip the loaf out onto the rack. I improvised with a wire rack on a baking pan so I wouldn't have to clean burnt seeds out of the bottom of my oven later--that was a good decision. The loaf is really damp. It didn't want to come out of the baking pan, even though my pan is flexible and nothing really sticks to it. The bits that did come free easily crumbled to the bottom of the tray. I kinda lumped the rest together into a blob and hoped for the best.

Problem #1. It is damp and sticky.

It maintained it's damp yet crumbly texture even after baking.

After baking, I let it cool overnight, per instructions so it would be easy to slice. Ha. This stuff just fell apart when the knife touched it. There was no way I would be getting any jam or peanut butter or hummus or anything else spread on it.

I popped a morsel in my mouth. And then I started chewing. And chewing. And chewing. And chewing. This "bread" will give your jaw a SERIOUS workout. It is very filling and takes a long time to chew so I suppose it would be good for a person who is trying to cut calories. If you can choke it down. To me, it sort of tasted the way I imagine damp bird seed would taste.

I gave some to Matthew. Here was his reaction:

With great regret, I threw that brick of birdseed in the garbage. There was no way I could convince anyone in this house it was something good to eat.

Life changing? Not so much.

Tomorrow I will share with you a winning pin. I won't promise that it will change your life, but it might help you make friends on a coffee date.